Galinka Ehrenfest

• Name — Galinka Ehrenfest • Pen Name — El Pintor • Born — 23 July 1910 • Birthplace — Kannuka, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire • Died — 12 August 1979 • Place of death — Gronsveld, Limburg, Netherlands • Occupation — Author • Genre — Children's literature • Spouse — Jaap Kloot • Parents — Tatyana Afanasyeva-Ehrenfest (mother) and Paul Ehrenfest (father) • Relatives — Tatyana van Aardenne-Ehrenfest (sister)

Galinka Ehrenfest was born in the former village of Kannuka (now part of Sillamäe), Estonia, as the second daughter of Austrian Jewish theoretical physicist Paul Ehrenfest and Russian mathematician Tatyana Afanasyeva-Ehrenfest. Her sister, mathematician Tatyana van Aardenne-Ehrenfest, was five years older than her, and later had two younger brothers: Paul Jr. and Wassik, who was born with Down syndrome. Wassik was killed in 1933 by his father in a murder-suicide at the age of 15, whilst Paul was killed in 1939 by an avalanche in the French Alps. Because her father was appointed professor of mathematics and physics at Leiden University in 1912, succeeding Hendrik Lorentz, the family relocated to Leiden that year. They initially lived in Groenhovenstraat but, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, moved to a house in Witte Rozenstraat designed by her mother. The building, now known as the Ehrenfesthuis, is a designated national monument. Ehrenfest was married to artist Jaap Kloot, with whom she authored books under the pen name El Pintor (Spanish for "The Painter"). They were captured by the Nazis in May 1943 and Kloot died at the Sobibór extermination camp. Galinka, who was heavily pregnant, was interrogated for a week. She told a false story, after which she was released. She continued making picture books as El Pintor until 1946, first with Godfried Bomans, then with Jef Last. In total, seventeen El Pintor books were published. On 23 May 1949, Ehrenfest remarried to Hendrik van Bommel. • Illustration — El Pintor's "Zauberbuch von 1001 Nacht" Ehrenfest donated profits from her books to the Dutch Resistance during the Second World War. Following the war, she became an interior designer specializing in children's rooms. Ehrenfest died in 1979 in Gronsveld, Netherlands, aged 69.